Keys to understand the employee journey

Many companies agree on a recurring idea that has been resonating with increasing strength during business conventions and events for years: if you want the product or service you provide to be successful, you must bring the focus into the customer. A customer experience-centric approach is essential to understand what they demand and to avoid wasting time, money and effort on something the market is not asking for or needing. But, even if the customer is the one to pay attention to in order not to become obsolete, companies shouldn’t forget about those who make their existence possible: the employees. For that reason, a new essential concept regarding modern corporate ethos is starting to get some buzz: the employee journey.

What are we talking about here?

The technology company Oracle defines this concept as the sum of all the experiences an employee gathers from his employer during the time he works there. According to this definition, the journey begins when the worker is hired, and then he goes through basically three stages: learning, contribution and growth.

The challenge companies are facing, regardless the stage the employee is at, lies in seeking to ensure a set of opportunities internally that allow him to develop as a professional, thus enhancing his commitment with the tasks he’s performing and avoiding brain drain eventually.

Customer experience research firm Temkin Group has found a correlation between staff commitment and a successful final-user experience. During a study conducted last year, the firm evinced that companies with a higher degree of customer satisfaction are those that almost double the average rate of commitment among their employees.

A question of method

The employee experience mapping methodology is a useful tool in order to better understand the specific issues concerning underperforming workers.
The experiences triggering the motivation of two different employees do not necessarily have to be the same. Harvard Business Review advises those companies that can afford it the implementation of segmentation strategies and personalized tactics, in order to be able to provide experiences tailored to entice diverse sections. By doing so, they may have the capacity to meet the needs of a staff with diverse interests.

According to Oracle, the company must be aware of their work processes, the ways they interact with each other or how they deal with the challenges they face in order to try and be conscious of where any issue may arise. For that purpose, it must identify specific circumstances that may have an effect on their attitude and try to improve their experience, in order to help them perform their duties better and achieve the expected results.

A technology-driven task

Well into the 21st century, betting on this practice shouldn’t and mustn’t be what it is usually dubbed as an analogic task. Forrester Research discovered that merging technological architecture with employee experience in big companies leads to optimal results regarding internal work structuring, which translates into higher participation, talent retention and increased productivity. During Forrester’s experiment, the majority of companies that invested on employee-oriented technology improved customer experience and brand perception, as well as their financial performance.

Among the most remarkable initiatives to foster the employee journey, those destined to generate engagement, that is, to promote greater involvement and certain sense of belonging on the part of the staff, are the ones that stand out. These initiatives seek to create a closer relationship between them and the brand they work for, based on shared values, educational content useful for their professional or personal life, or by providing a chance to take part in their community activities. In conclusion: companies make them realize they care. In this respect, some corporations develop mobile applications to provide guidance to their employees or publish blogs in order to keep them updated on developments in their sector and address topics that may solve their concerns.